Who You Want Them to Be
by cast-iron shipper
Summary: A short 8th year soulmate story! Thanks for reading, Beans! I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling and Warner Brothers do. I wish I did, but sadly I don't.


It was a good thing that Professor Slughorn liked Harry so much because, being the annoying git he was, he was late to class almost everyday. It was practically ten minutes past the starting time when he burst into the classroom breathing heavily and with his hair windblown.

"Ah! Harry my boy!"

"Sorry for being late Professor."

"No problem at all Harry! Go sit down and get to work." Harry smiled to him and turned around to plop into his chair next to me.

"Potter! Where have you been?" I hissed to my potions partner. "Too busy snogging your red-haired weasel to notice the time?"

"For your information, Malfoy, I haven't been with her since the start of the year." The shock of his words must've shown on my face because Harry looked at me a bit weirdly. Just as suddenly I pulled my Malfoy mask back on.

"Wonderful, I've always wanted to know what was going on in your private life. I especially like to hear about it when we have a limited amount of time to brew our potion. Get the ingredients!"

"Okay, okay! What're we making?"

"Amorentia, which you would know if you had come in on time. It's also on the board. Actually notice things for once! Go!" As Harry stalked away to get the ingredients I got my cauldron ready and tried to process all of the new information. Harry broke up with his girlfriend. She must've done something really wrong because he seemed to like her a lot. I took a deep breath to clear my head from thoughts of the Savior and started a fire under the cauldron. I poured our base in and flicked my wand at the fire to lessen the heat.

"I've got the ingredients," he said as he dumped them down on the table. "What're you doing with the base? It says to boil it on high heat, not simmer it. You're going to mess it up!" he accused.

"Who's the potions genius here, you or me? I know what to do to make it more powerful in less time. Snape didn't tutor me for nothing. Just go crush the salamander scales."

"How many, oh Powerful Potions Master?"

"Double what it says in the book, oh Savior of the Wizarding World."

"Quit calling me that," he grumbled while he got the scales out of the jar.

"Why should I? You did save the Wizarding world even if you were a grump about it."

He stuck his tongue out at me and said, "Do I just pour them in? Or do some fancy thing like dropping them one pinch at a time into the cauldron while doing a choreographed line dance on the table?"

"You do place a pinch of them in one at a time, but not while dancing. Do it every stir, until I get to nine. Then put them in every other stir."

"Great. What will a stronger potion do?" he asked while getting ready for what seemed like a Quidditch match. He cracked his knuckles and stretched a bit in his chair.

"If you give it to a person, they will become even more infatuated with you than normal Amorentia, but if you smell it, it will lead you to your soul mate." I started stirring and motioned for Harry to put in the first pinch.

"Soul mate? Isn't that stuff a little young for eighth years?"

"I suspected that you needed a bit of help finding yours. You've only had two relationships and neither of them lasted very long."

"I think that I have a pretty good idea of who I want him to be." I looked up shocked; my wand still stirred the potion. I shook myself out of the trance, sighed and took a pinch of the salamander scales and put it in. Harry was too busy staring at me, eyes wide.

"Seriously, Potter, if you're not going to put in the scales, at least get the other stuff ready. The notes are all in my book." He nodded quickly and stuffed his nose in my book. I rolled my eyes and pretended like I didn't hear the information that he just spilled. There's no way that it would be me. It's probably Longbottom or McLaggen or some other dumb Gryffindork like that. "Hurry up and get all of it ready! And quit staring at my book."

"Sorry but it looks a lot like another book that I came across once. It had a lot of notes and changes like this one." He started mincing, crushing, and slicing the ingredients.

"Was that book the property of the Half-Blood Prince? I think I came across it in the RoR. It was Snape's wasn't it?"

"Yeah, how did you know about it?"

"Seriously Potter, do you ever put two and two together? He tutored me and was my godfather. Obviously I know about his book." I rolled my eyes again and put the last bit of salamander scales in.

"Ah, very good Ms. Granger, but Harry, my boy! That potion is truly superb! Yes, yes, and congratulations to you too Mr. Malfoy," he said after I cleared my throat.

"Actually, I didn't make most of the potion…" he trailed off when Professor Slughorn waved him down.

"Yes, well, only you would be able to make this strong of Amorentia without instruction. You were simply astounding in you sixth year, and you are wonderful now! Absolutely brilliant and so like your mother. She was a potions genius too you know. You really do have her eyes and–"

"I look like my father, I know," he huffed. "And had a ton of help both of the years." Professor Slughorn merely waved him off again.

"I expect great things from you, whether in potions or out." He walked to the next table and proceeded to reprimand Finnigan about proper cauldron use.

"Do my ears deceive me or was the Savior Harry Potter actually being modest and not taking all the credit for his potions?"

"They're not all my potions. You make almost all of the ones this year, and I had tons of help from Snape in sixth."

"So that means that I get to take credit for this potion when Slughorn praises you for it?" I asked putting in the final ingredients that Harry had been chopping absentmindedly.

"Well, yeah. It was your idea after all…"

"Good," I said taking the cauldron off of the heat. "Though I bet Slughorn will dismiss me out of hand and praise you for it anyway."

"Probably. When will the potion start working? I can't smell anything right now."

"It starts after the sliver mist falls out of the cauldron. You can also use it before, but it works the best after. It takes about three minutes."

"So we wait?" I nodded. "When will the others finish?" he asked while looking around at the other tables.

"Long after us. We will have time to either agonize or celebrate over our discovery."

"Great. I still hope that my 'soul mate' is who I want him to be."

"Who do you want him to be?" I asked keeping my eyes on the cauldron watching for the silver mist.

"Well… it's just that… I mean… he's… um… he's not really…"

"He's not really what?" I asked. The mist was about to come out of the cauldron, so I only had a limited amount of time to get the answer out of him before he got distracted.

"He's not really someone my friends would approve of. Oh look! The mist! Ready to find out who your soul mate is?"

"I already know, Potter, I've tried this potion before. I test it out a lot because I always want to know whether it's a fluke or not."

"Is it someone you don't like?"

"No, I really like them, they just hate me, so…"

"Isn't the thing with soul mates is that both of the people love each other and are the best fit?"

"Yeah, but that's why I think it's a fluke." I shrugged and got ready to smell the same thing I did every time: new broomsticks, treacle tart, generic soap, and, of course, the distinctive smell of Harry himself.

"Wow, I would never have thought…" he murmured after sniffing the mist.

"Thought what?" He just stared at me, and I stared back at him. I raised an eyebrow and opened my mouth to ask who his soul mate was.

"Looks like you're done here Mr. Potter… and Malfoy," he choked out. "This is a simply brilliant potion you've made. I wouldn't expect any less from you."

"Actually, Sir, it wasn't my idea to do a more complex potion. It was all Dra– Malfoy's idea and notes that helped us do it." He looked up at me with wide eyes again. I just rolled mine. It's not like he hadn't slipped up like that all year. Slughorn only waved him off.

"I'm sure you helped out a lot and changed the ingredients."

"No, Sir, I didn't. All I did was crush the salamander scales and add a few of them in." He picked up my book and showed him the page with my notes about the Amorentia.

"Hm. Very well. Is it okay with… both of you if I take some of this potion to show the others?" We nodded. "Wonderful, you two are excused from the rest of class, if you want." We both nodded again and as soon as Professor Slughorn walked away, we quickly cleaned up and put everything back in our bags.

Harry quickly stood up and walked out of the room as fast as he could without running.

"Well? What're you waiting for?" Hermione demanded turning around in her chair. "Go follow him! You saw his face after smelling the potion. I know he really, really likes you. It's a bit hard not to notice that you two are smitten with other." She nodded and I picked up my bags to rush out of the room after him. "Wait," she said resting a hand on my arm. "I do approve of you Draco. Harry's wrong. Again, I might add. He's been moaning and groaning about you since he was eleven! He thought you hated him, clearly not though. Scoot!"

I swung my bag over my shoulder and raced out of the room to where he would most likely be. I was torn between Gryffindor tower and Myrtle's bathroom. Eventually I turned right and slowed to a stop in front of the bathroom's closed door. I slowly stepped forward and opened the creaking door to find Harry chatting quietly with Myrtle. She was trying to pat him on the back, to no avail, obviously.

"Harry, are you alright?" He whipped his head up. His eyes were huge and he was smiling slightly when he stood up, hovered a hand on Myrtle's arm, and told her that he needed to talk to me in private. She happily obliged and sailed down her toilet, most likely to the prefect's bathroom.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I rolled my eyes. Obviously he wasn't fine. He was talking to Myrtle willingly for Merlin's sake! "You really need to tighten your eyeballs. They're a bit loose."

"What? You mean because I roll my eyes a lot?" He nodded. I almost rolled my eyes, but caught myself before I could. He smiled and made an expression that said told you. "You're going off topic."

"Did we even have a topic to start with?"

"No, but I thought it was implied that I wanted to talk to you about Potions."

"Well, imagine that. The icy Slytherin prince wants to willingly start a conversation with the Savior of the Wizarding World."

"I thought you hated that name?"

"I'm only using it to make a point."

"Ah." I walked to a wall and slid down it and ended up sitting with my legs in front of me. "I wanted to talk about the Amorentia."

"How'd I guess?" He came over and slid down the wall next to me.

"I mostly want to know why you ran away, and if that is somehow connected to the smell."

"First I want to know who you smell every time. Who do you think is the fluke?"

I internally rolled my eyes because obviously he wants to know about the potion. "I'll tell you after you tell me who you smelled."

"That's going to be a no. I asked first." He smirked and raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave and all that shit?"

"Annoying Slytherin," he said and huffed like a kid, but smiled like the amazing person he was. "Fine I'll tell you, but you have to promise that you will tell me exactly who, meaning the name and, if there's a loophole through that, you have to describe them in detail, you got right after."

"Didn't I already say that I was going to do that?" I inquired dubiously.

"Yes, you did, but I want to make sure that there aren't any loopholes."

"Makes sense," I said and nodded a bit to prove my point. "So… who are they?"

"They? You don't just automatically assume that I smelled a girl?" He looked sideways at me with a puzzled expression.

"Well no, I mean, I'm gay, so if the Slytherin Prince is, why can't the Chosen One be? Plus I'm sick of people assuming my sexuality, so I may as well not assume others'. Also," I added as an afterthought, "you wanted the person to be a boy so…"

He nodded with a pleased expression. "Touché. Well, the person I smelled was a boy, thank you for the 'they', and he is…" He took a deep breath and looked up at me with a frightened, yet content look on his face. "He is you." I didn't think. I just moved. I closed the empty space between us, took him by the back of his neck, and brushed my lips against his.

I couldn't help closing my eyes even though I wanted to see his expression. Time seemed to stop when he relaxed against me and brought one hand up to my hair and the other pulled me closer to him. I turned him so he pressed up against the wall. In answer, he parted his lips to let me in even more.

When we finally broke apart, we didn't stop holding each other. I tucked my head into his neck and wrapped my arms around him so nothing in the world could separate us.

"Since when?" he whispered.

"Since forever," I breathed finally moving my head to have my eyes level with his. "You?" He just smiled and took me by the back of the neck in answer.


End file.
